‘Double Lover’ cuts deeper than ‘Fifty Shades’

Erotic thrillers ought never to be timid, yet “Double Lover” features a shot, early in the film, that’s so audacious – recalling the body horror of “Dead Ringers” and the surrealist classic “Un Chien Andalou,” which features an eye being sliced open – it might inspire walkouts.

In his previous films, director Francois Ozon explored the intersection of emotion and sexuality, but he has never been this brazen.

Marine Vacth, who starred in Ozon’s “Young & Beautiful,” plays a troubled woman named Chloé, whose physician recommends that she see a therapist for psychosomatic stomachaches. Paul (Jérémie Renier) is an attentive listener, but his strictly therapeutic relationship with his new patient ends after they develop a mutual attraction.

Something strange happens shortly after they move in together, during her bus ride home: Chloé sees Paul with another woman. He insists it wasn’t him, and Chloé must have seen a double. In this case, he means it literal- ly: Paul has a twin brother, Louis, who is also a therapist. Chloé starts visiting Louis in secret, and she cannot reconcile how identical twins can be so different. Nothing about this film feels remotely safe. Unlike the “Fifty Shades” series, “Double Lover” has little interest in romance, instead considering the psychological impulses that inform it. Three stars. Unrated. Contains violence, strong language, nudity, sexual situations and disturbing images. In French with subtitles. 107 minutes.